The Tongwe are a small African tribe that are found in Tanzania.
The Tongwe are located as far north as Ujiji (near Kigoma), as far south as Kashaguru and Kalya, and as far west as Nguruka and in villages along the road to Mpanda via Uvinza. Places where there are large populations of Tongwe are Uvinza, Ilagala, Mahanga, Sunuka, Kaparamsenga, Mgambazi, Rukoma, Igalula, Mgambo, Mkonkwa, Ikuburu, Rubalizi, Sibwesi, Kalya, Kashaguru, Lufubu, and Isonga.
The Tongwe of Tanzania are numbering 60,500 (Peoplegroups.org, 2025)
The Tongwe are farmers (mostly rice farming), gatherers, and hunters. Hunting has become extremely difficult in recent years because of a crackdown by the government forcing the Tongwe to buy hunting permits, which cost more than a year's wages to kill one animal. When they do go against the law, they use either spears or homemade muskets (one-shot guns) that use gunpowder and some type of homemade metal or lead projectile. They make beehives and collect honey at various times of the year.
The Tongwe originally came from eastern Congo and crossed over Lake Tanganyika into Tanzania. They settled in what are presently Mahale National Park and the surrounding area. When Tanzania gained its independence, the newly elected President Julius Kambarage Nyerere, forced all Tanzanians to move from their rural homelands into major villages, towns, and cities. This relocation was called Ujamaa. The Tongwe were drastically affected, and many of them were forced to move and spread into towns and villages, such as, Uvinza, Ilagala, Kalya, Kashaguru, Mgambo, Rukoma, Kaparamsenga, and Mgambazi. After Tanzania's independence, all the Tongwe that lived in the Rukwa region were renamed the Bende tribe.
After Nyerere left office, something interesting happened. Many of the Tongwe who lived in Uvinza and Ilagala did not stray far away from the main villages. In the regions south of the Malagarasi River, the Tongwe returned in large numbers back up into the forests and the hills, and refused to become acclimated to life in the main villages. It was not, however, the last time the Tongwe had to be relocated in Tanzania's modern history. The Tongwe, who lived on the land that is now Mahale National Park and Katavi National Park, were forced once more to leave their homes and land when the parks were established in 1990. The Tongwe are now very suspicious of the government, and even Westerners, because of the numerous forced relocations from their homelands.
Islam is the religion for many Tongwe.
The Tongwe are infamous throughout Kigoma and other parts of Tanzania for being inseparable from witchcraft, demonic, and animistic worship. The legends and spirits of great witch doctors, and Tongwe kings and queens, still lurk heavy in the air throughout all the mountains, forests, lakes, streams, and villages that they have inhabited both now and in the past.
Sources: